New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1887-07-13
Walking the F'Iume.

Walking Lie & lulll6.
It was always a mystery to me, and
IS yet, for that matter, how upon earth
lever happened to marry Abner Greg
DRY, OF, rather, how upon earth Abner
Gregory happened to marry me-.
Now if he had married my sister An
ME. it would have seemed quite natural
and explainable, for she was so much
like him in her ways SO particular and
good natured and we'll meaning, SO
slow to vex, and so quick to forgive
and forget-that they would seem to
be just suited to each other, but it was
the oldest thing in the world that, see
ing US side by side walking up Pacific
avenue in Santa Cruz one day, he
should have taken it into his head to
fall in love with me. ! He didn't lie: the
grass grow under his feet after that be-
fore he was counting me hard and fast,
and as mother found out that there
was nothing outstanding against his
moral character, and that he was
steady and industrious, and had little
nest egg in the bank, she didn't say
No. when he asked her to let us be
married in the early fall. It was the
queerest thing though, that he should
have taken fancy to me; for I was
gust bis opposite in every way. It
wasn't so strange that should take up
with him; for although he wasn't ex-
actly handsome, he was strong and
manly looking, with an honest face,
pleasant smile and q pair Of Scotch blue
eyes that had the kindest expression in
them that ever saw in eyes before or
since. He wouldn't hurt dog pur-
posely, Abner wouldn't, but he was no
anilk-sop either, as the boys had found
out once or twice when they Che being
then new to that section of the coun-
try, had roughed him up little ito
see what he was made Of as the Gus
tom is amongst them. Taken all to-
gether he was a well-appearing man,
Abner was, and | was proud of nv
luck in getting him, and mother and
Annie and little Tom, they was that
fond of him you'd have thought he was
born into the family instead of marry
ing into it when he was twenty nine
years old.
What he saw in me never could
make out. for I WASH tall or fair and
pretty like mother and Annie, but was
short, and plump as a partridge, with
hair as straight and black as an In
dams, swapping black eyes, cheeks as
red as Baldwin apples, and spunky-
" Lor', wasn't | spunky in those days!
"a regular spitfre, and no mistake.
You'll have to handle Mary Jane
with gloves, says. mother, '.or you'll
burn your fingers certain
Snt Abner, he just lau ghed, in his
! pheasant way, and said he wasn't afraid
3sof me nor my temper, neither, and he
thought we'd work in double harness
frstrate.
Twas queer, too. my coming from
Maine to California to get a husband.
Inever thought when / was PLAYING
down on the beach in Cape Elizabeth,
and going to school along with Annie,
an the white Academy, that looked so
much like an Westinghouse from the
4 outside, that should find my match
over on the Pacific coast. / was about
certain in those days that I should
marry a White-headed boy who used to
h,ing me May-foWers in the spring,
and drag me to school on his sled
in the winter, and settle down in the
village near enough to my folks not to
be over lonesome while he was off whal-
ing -by which he was going to make
his fortune. 33E
i suppose all Of this would have
happened if father hadn't taken a ter
rible notion to go to California. And
go he did: and pretty soon after he
sent us word, SO much did he like the
country, to break up, sell all, and come
70 him land we did.
Six months after we got to him,
father got killed by a blast, and
mother, who never could abide the
sight Of a mining camp or even bit of
quartz after that, took all she had and
bought little place in Santa Cruz
close by the beach, which seemed sort
of comforting and like the old home
down in the State of Maine. There,
with her bit Of ground and the board
ers that she managed to get, she had
got along pretty we'll Annie, who
was. Eve years older than I, helped
with the housework, while Tom and
went to school, and when I got too big
\ TO go to school, II got in with dress
maker and helped her, busy times, and
helped around the house when she had
no work for me. So we were living,
quite cosy and pleasant, when Abner
Gregory came along and married me.
And quite cosy and pleasant we lived
all together after that until the mill
where Abner had been working, shut
down. and lie was thrown cut of q job.
1t was no use looking for work any
where near our place. Tor the whole
town, and all the towns around were
full Of men who bad come down from
the mountains to get OUT of the coming